A Maryland Swim Team Loses Title Over A Shaving Violation

Yes, the title does just about sum up how bizarre of a story this is. We are not talking about point shaving, but the actual shaving of body hair.

The Broadneck High girls swimming squad, based out of Annapolis Maryland, lost their county titles over a technicality in the rule book. The issue stems from the fact that the National Federation of State High School Associations stipulates that athletes are not allowed to shave before or after in an event they are competing in, while on site.

According to the Baltimore Sun, "Broadneck has been forced to forfeit its Anne Arundel County swimming championship after it was discovered that an athlete violated rules by shaving on-site just prior to the county meet."

The rules are in place for a very valid reason. Namely, the discouragement of razor sharing, which could lead to the transmission of blood born toxins, HIV, etc. The issue a lot of people are having is how exactly do you determine when an athlete shaved? Do they have monitors for such a thing? What if they waxed rather than shaved?

The point is, the team won the championship fairly, and lost it on a stupid technicality. Cameron Smith of Yahoo Sports makes a great point in saying, "...the rule can seem quite a bit over the top when one considers generally acceptable practices for other sports; after all, no one is telling football or basketball players that they can't shave after a game or practice."

This is just another example of a rule that was meant to do good, but ended up hurting an entire team full of people, that genuinely were the best.

What do you think? Let us know below.